Dumbest Employees Caught On Camera in 2012 [Video]

Each year brings with it plenty of examples of employees caught doing dumb things while on the job, and 2012 was no exception. From the auto-dealership worker who was accused of faking her own kidnapping to the small-town clerk who stole $53 million from taxpayers to the teacher who allegedly ordered her students to bully another child, workers proved yet again that there's no shortage of ingenuity when it comes to behaving stupidly.

What's more, advances in technology mean that many more such examples are being caught on video -- whether by cameras on cell phones or through surveillance -- and increasingly winding up on social media sites, such as Facebook and YouTube, or shared with the media.

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With that in mind, AOL Jobs has compiled a list of the five dumbest things employees did on video this year. The compilation is by no means comprehensive, but these examples do represent some of the more entertaining stories we've reported this year. Take a look and tell us: What's the dumbest thing you heard (or saw) an employee do this year?

It's no secret that many Walmart workers are unhappy about the wages they earn and hours they work, which is what led to several protests ahead of Black Friday, the busiest shopping day of the year. Earlier this year, though, four workers at a Walmart in Pikeville, Ky., felt that they had better way to express their job frustrations -- by tossing and purposely dropping iPads in the store's stockroom, while recording the destruction. The video of the incident, which reportedly happened in August, found its way on to YouTube, and the workers were fired.

Employees who rely on tips for the bulk of their income have no shortage of ways to express their dissatisfaction in not getting tipped. In Iowa, however, a delivery driver took venting his disdain to a whole new level, by peeing on the door of a customer who simply didn't have enough money to tip him. A surveillance camera caught the act, and after the owner of the local Pizza Hut franchise was called and advised of the incident, the driver was, umm, relieved of his job.

You'd think a government employee would know better than to drive drunk -- especially when responding to a call to investigate a potential crime. But the coroner of Hancock, Ind., did just that in May, and it was all caught on video. Tamara Vangundy showed up at the crime scene stumbling, swaying and reeking of alcohol, according to police. After failing breathalyzer tests, she was arrested and charged with two misdemeanors. Vangundy pleaded guilty to the charges and in August was sentenced to a year of probation. She also resigned her position.

Reading a newspaper while operating a mass-transit vehicle carrying hundreds of people is potentially dangerous. But that's exactly what a passenger witnessed last June, recording video of the incident on a cell phone aimed through the window of the engineer's compartment on a Metro-North train, as it rolled into New York City's Grand Central Terminal. The employee in question, whom the Metropolitan Transit Authority declined to identify, was reportedly suspended. After news of the incident leaked to the media, other train engineers responded -- not by refusing to read while on duty, but by covering up their windows, preventing watchful riders from peering into their cabs.

Times may be tough, but that's no excuse for stealing from the needy. Yet that's exactly what Brice Miller, a veteran police officer of the DeLand Police Department in Florida was seen doing last May, when surveillance video on two occasions showed a patrol car stopping in the back of a Goodwill store in DeLand. Miller was identified as the likely culprit after his patrol car's number, PD 65, was seen in the video. Faced with possible termination, Miller decided to instead retire -- two years sooner than he had planned.

News anchors Larry Potash and Robin Baumgarten thought that they were breaking a major story live on the air as a TV news helicopter beamed images of a plane crashed on a major Chicago thoroughfare. As it turned out, the scene was staged for the NBC series, "Chicago Fire." The news team soon learned via their headsets that they erred in reporting the location shoot as a real emergency, leaving a frazzled Baumgarten to repeatedly ask, "Are you kidding me?"

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iMan9796

This same disgusting thievery is commonplace at the Port Authority Bus Terminal's Lost & Found Dept. in NYC by PABT Supervisors. Google “Donna Lebourne abc news" & see the vile face of shame being confronted & exposed.

Port Authority Supervisor Donna Lebourne has an outside job, she is the Vice President of her & her husband’s charity Caribbean Sports International that donates cellphones & other electronics. If you lost an item at the Port Authority Bus Terminal and did not get it back, contact her charity, perhaps she may donate your item back to you out of the kindness of her evil heart. It's very easy to be charitable when you are giving away other peoples' property.

The Port Authority allows these crimes by their supervisors & their enablers to go unpunished. The Port Authority also has an illegal policy of throwing lost valid passports found at the PABT in the garbage, for anyone to find & use for their own nefarious purposes. The Port Authority’s illegal passport policy is criminally insane in this age of global terrorism and rampant identity theft, This is an act of treason against the United States of America. The Port Authority has become an imminent threat to national security. Google “Port Authority - passports” & “found, stolen, trashed by PA”

None of that is worth destroying people's lives for. That said, notice that the ONLY one whose life was not destroyed is the cop stealing from goodwill? He retires and the people will pay him for the rest of his life. Those pigs are no better then the ones in germany!

Is Kentucky proud of these good old boys ? Guess what , they were screwing over their own friends a neighbors. They are just too dumb to realize that the locals would be buying what they were destroying. Hope they made restitution and got a little jail time to reflect before trying to find another job. Question: Would you hire any of them, knowing about this video ?.....If so....you have been warned.

Maybe, instead of being so hard on the employees, you direct your anger and the inhumane working conditions at walmart! 'They are NOT screwing over their own friends a neighbors' as no of the friends and neighbors will have to keep the damaged products and can return/exchange them. And you know what? Screw the 'friends' and 'neighbors' who care more about their precious crap ipods then the do the abuse those workers are enduring! Put the idiots on walmart's executive board in jail! They are the ones abusing their help!